1 A JOURNEY IN THE EAST. 301 



unforgettable days, and then went on to the adjacent station, 

 from which the train soon bore us off to the North, and in 

 a little while the whole party were fast asleep. 



When I awoke early on the morning of the 15th the sun 

 was peeping into the carriage, and we had come to a stand- 

 still in the small and very neglected station of Bedrascheen, 

 where we breakfasted in the dirty waiting-room, and then 

 rode off to Memphis on donkeys. The road ran by marshy 

 pools, well-tilled fields, and large palm-forests, to the little 

 village of Mitrahenne, which lay hidden among the luxuriant 

 verdure of the African vegetation. There stood the temple 

 of the god Ptah, the great fashioner and maker of all created 

 things. 



From Memphis we rode out of the cultivated country to 

 the pyramids of Sakkara, in the great Libyan desert, and past 

 Mariette's house to the Apis tombs. 



Here the character of the country is just the same as at 

 the pyramids of Gizeh, which one sees at no great distance, 

 together with the town and citadel of Cairo and the terraces 

 of the Mokattam hills. 



We had a light lunch in the little house near the Apis 

 tombs which the late celebrated Egyptologist Mariette Bey 

 built for the pursuance of his researches, and then went to 

 the singular low Step-Pyramid to hunt for jackals. Hardly 

 had the Arabs begun to climb up the stones, when down came 

 a jackal in full flight and fell to my gun. 



After this successful little bit of sport we visited the other 

 pyramids of this district, including the small one of King 

 Pepi I., recently opened ; and after scrambling in and out of 

 it with some difficulty, we left the desert with its ancient 

 monuments and rode back to the cultivated country. 



The road led past a berseem field, a very attractive- 

 looking cover for game, so we determined to get our servants 

 and some fellaheen to beat it, but unluckily the owner 



